Harry Crosby as Photographer

Of all Crosby’s interests, the one least represented by his biographer Geoffrey Wolff is his work in photography. His photos are mentioned by Wolff only in passing (though with remarks of admiration for their professional skill). But in the page-long list of accomplishments that Wolff imagines Crosby looking forward to in 1929, photography is entirely absent. Yet Crosby’s interest in photography was only deepening and had he lived he would surely have continued exploring the possibilities of this new medium. In 1930, the Black Sun Press released its first volume that was entirely a collection of photography. And last-minute plans for publishing the press’s deluxe edition of The Bridge saw three photographs by a young Walker Evans printed in lieu of the planned frontispiece, a reproduction of an oil painting by Joseph Stella. Finally, issues of Transition, the experimental quarterlyon whose editorial board Crosby served and had helped support financially and which published and edited his writing, also pioneered in printing the early work of photographers who would help define the medium, like Berenice Abbott and Walker Evans. Three of Crosby’s photographs appeared in Transition.

Another three of Crosby’s photographs appeared posthumously in The Hound & Horn in the January-March, 1930 issue (Vol. III, No. 2). They nicely display the range of his interest: a shop window in the manner of Cartier-Bresson, an off-angle snapshot of the exhaust pipes on a racing car, and one of a series of photos taken at the racetrack. The first is a stylized response to the city, the second reveals a skill at devising dramatic angles while the third attests to the readiness of the photographer who must take his pictures in the moment.

"Still Life"

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"Racing Car"

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"Jockey"

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"Toy Horse against Mill"
In a series of snapshots of a child’s inflatable toy horse, Crosby played with the stature conferred on objects when photographed dramatically enough, against the ancient stone walls and austere architecture of the mill in France where the Crosbys stayed. Reproduced with the Permission of Special Collections, Morris Library, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale

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"Mechanical Brain."
Reproduced with the Permission of Special Collections, Morris Library, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale

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Reverse Side of "Mechanical Brain"
Though Crosby could bring an edge of whimsy to his photography, it was work that he took seriously. He titled and signed the back of his photos with the same distinctive signature that he applied to his poetry. Reproduced with the Permission of Special Collections, Morris Library, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale

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